My first weekend in Australia, after fully recovering from the jet lag, was spent camping with a friend of mine and a few of his buddies. On Friday we drove a couple hours north from Sydney to Myall Lakes National Park where there are campgrounds surrounded both by a group of protected fresh water lakes and huge sand dunes. Behind which is the eastern coast of the country. Aka, really nice sandy beaches.
I hadn’t been camping in years but I figured camping here would be pretty much the same as it is in Canada. I just thought I might see a koala or two. Just kidding! Instead I saw a giant iguana, a big-ass (apparently harmless) spider, a red-bellied black snake (also, apparently, harmless.. or less deadly than the other snakes you can find in this country), a pod of dolphins (at the beach, obv!), and some very aggressive ducks that attempted to intimidate us away from our lakeside spot. (They didn’t). Yep, in the span of a single weekend I’ve seen more nature than I have after all kinds of camping trips in Canada. In my entire lifetime.
Aside from the whole fancy wildlife/beach thing the experience is in fact very similar — you still have the mosquitos, chilly nights, waking up to the sound of birds chirping, cozy campfires, and Australians will booze until the wee hours like any other campers (or maybe more). You’ll also have the campfire staple, s’mores…. or will you? You see, this is where those similarities become not so similar.
They don’t have graham crackers in Australia.
Sorry, I meant to say graham biscuits. No matter what you call them, they just don’t exist. I also had trouble locating marshmallows in Bondi before the trip, and when I did they were pink and white. Interesting. More importantly, where are all the graham crackers? Do these people know what they’re missing??
UGH. /rant
After about ten minutes of deliberation in the biscuit aisle of the grocery store I decided to go with Arnott’s Arrowroot Biscuits. It ended up being just an OK substitute, so maybe next time I won’t go with arrowroot. I’m not sure if the Australians I went camping with really understood what s’mores are or what they’re supposed to taste like because they didn’t seem to complain about the lack of proper ingredients. Or maybe I’m just a s’mores purist.
Slight s’mores disappointments aside, I had a great time in Myall Lakes. Oh, and the weather was awesome. 10/10 would go back again!
-C
Near our campsite is a beach that the Aussies with us affectionately called “Drowny Beach” due to the intense waves and strong currents that make it so unsafe for swimming.
Dolphins look like they’re having fun all the time. Even at Drowny Beach. Jelly.
After a little research I found the actual name of this beach: Treachery Beach. Huh. I guess “Drowny” wasn’t so far off.
